Sports Reporter

Stapled together: Michael De Vere after a nasty head gash was stapled together on the field during a State of Origin match in 2003. Photo: Craig Golding

When Blues team doctor John Orchard used a staple gun on the sideline to close a gash in Michael De Vere's head during the 2003 Origin series, it was seen as so cutting edge that NSWRL officials ordered him to conduct such procedures in the dressing room.

Now the determination by clubs and players to find an edge has resulted in Orchard, who has worked for Sydney Roosters for a decade, and a number of the game's most experienced doctors quitting their jobs due to fears of damage to their professional reputations and possible litigation.

While some have cited family or personal reasons, Fairfax Media understands that concerns about supplements programs and the policing of the game's concussion rules were discussed at a day-long meeting of club doctors before the NRL grand final.

A video dossier of South Sydney players being allowed to play on after suffering a possible concussion and receiving smelling salts on the field from a trainer has also been circulating among club doctors.

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A doctor should be the moral compass in any sporting team, the one who authorises any substance given to players to ensure it is safe and decides whether a player is concussed or otherwise so badly injured they cannot play on.

However, in some cases that have come to light this season, club doctors have either not been consulted or were deliberately cut out of the decision-making process because of the belief they would not have approved.

Sandor Earl said in a recent television interview that controversial sports scientist Stephen Dank instructed him not to tell the Penrith club doctor about treatment he had advised the then Panthers winger to undergo in 2011.

Earl, the only person charged so far from the investigation into doping in Australian sport, said Dank had told him the doctor "wouldn't understand".

Dank and former Cronulla trainer Trent Elkin, now at Parramatta, also circumvented long-serving Sharks doctor David Givney when they introduced the supplements program that has members of the club's 2011 squad under investigation for using banned substances.

It was only after winger Isaac Gordon complained "not another needle" that Givney learnt players were being injected without his knowledge and demanded the practice cease.

However, Cronulla players are also alleged to have been given tablets and creams, and Gordon is now considering suing the Sharks after suffering extensive bruising from his groin to his toe that prompted Givney to warn his blood was so thin that a blow to the head could be fatal.

Former Manly club doctor Paul Bloomfield – who worked at St George Illawarra this season, and is one of five club medicos leaving their NRL posts – cautioned Givney about Dank, with whom he worked at the Sea Eagles, and the Sharks eventually parted company with him on May 29, 2011.

Orchard was also not consulted last December when the Roosters engaged fitness trainer Sean Caloran, who conducted blood tests of players that were later discovered on a crime figure's mobile phone after it was confiscated by police.

The Roosters terminated the services of Carolan's sports nutrition company Nubodi in January after Orchard objected when he returned from leave but he is believed to have concerns about the potential risk to his reputation.

Orchard was also one of the leading advocates of the tougher measures introduced this season to limit the dangers of concussion and is understood to be among those worried that enough is still not being done.

He became involved in a public slanging match with Des Hasler last year after the Canterbury coach took issue with Frank Pritchard being suspended for a tackle that KO'd Penrith winger David Simmonds, tweeting: "Hasler – the stereotype of a football coach totally obsessed with winning with no regard for welfare of game or opposition players."

While the NRL has banned the shoulder charge, some doctors were concerned by a video showing South Sydney halfback Adam Reynolds being given smelling salts in two matches this season, and George Burgess apparently receiving the same treatment in another game.

The NRL issued a warning about the ploy after Warriors doctor John Mayhew spoke out in the media, and Rabbitohs officials said head trainer Troy Thompson had stopped using smelling salts after he was notified that the practice had been outlawed.

1 comment so far

It seems there are a lot of NRL clubs that should be in trouble after the Dank 'experiments', yet ASADA & the NRL are still silent.